JAPANNED KOREA

Evening Star, Issue 17142, 8 September 1919, Page 5

JAPANNED KOREA

A FATE THAT MAY OVERTAKE SHANTUNG.

GHASTLY OF CRUELTY.

CHRISTIANS TORTURED ANO MASSACRED. [By Mr Apaji M*Cat, Editor of the Sydney "Sun."}

Twtttng this country, the Australian Journalist lias not- yet seen Korea. Visittoe Korea, he wiil have a picturesque ra&wav journey, and will stow away in Ma mind a pictorial impression of that country's resources, and' its positive material development under Japanese government*. Dr Morrison told to in Sydney that there could not be two opinions concerning the superior efficiency of Japanese control to that of the old Korean princedom. The whole world, as far as I can gather from Ministers and Ambassadors, is,of the same opinion. All the same, an Australian thinks that he does not want to be a Korean living under the government of Japan. In point of fact, Japanese publicists i& whom I have spoken—peers and commercial magnates—realise that a great international Blunder has recently been committed in Korea. It does not matter two straws whether one believes in the humanitarianism of '"Westernised 1 " residents of Japan, or whether, like many of the antiJapanese foreigners living here, one says that every concession to European ideals springs only from motives, of policy. The fact remains that Japanese soldiery in Korea have behaved as British people could not behave, and that here in this city cf Tokio there are Japanese- men who proclaim that- punishment is due to the men who have been guilty of the Korean excesses. What follows is printed by a man who knows nothing about Korea from, liis own experience, but who lias been given the documents by an acquaintance who came direct from that Japanese colony, and showed the signatures to Mi-' documents. Korea lias been shouting "Mansei," which is the equivalent of a call for Home Rule or independence. Everybody joins in a vivifying clarion like "that. Amon; the caper voices for Koreanism (says my informant) were thoss of oo schoolsrirl?. who were promptly _ arrested and taken to the West- Gate Prison In Seoul, to remain there for a fortnight. SCHOOLGIRLS STRIPPED AND SPAT ON. You. mav make up your own mind whether the etorv of a'patriotic- school-. girl ,put into gaol is wholly reliable. Anyway, hero is the narrative to which, one girl subscribed her name : j I was taken to the "West Gate Prison, j There I was stripped naked and looked ; at by the men. I was sneered at and j cursed at beyond power to, tell. After! being allowed to dress 1 was put intoj a room, not very largo, with 16 others, j and so we were packed together. The j toilet was placed in the room, like a; pigs' shelter. It wus filthy. We were j {riven beans and salt to eat. While eat- ] ins; they called ns names: "You dogs. I you pigs. 1 " Tbv second day the Japanese; called a police doctor, and several other-; came. They stripped me naked, and weighed me. and sneered, and scat on me, too. Thev said I should be tried publicly, and I hoped to be able to state my case; but at last I was let out without trial, and was not even told the natitre of my offence. However much, you may he charmed by the beauties of Japan, you have to admit that -womanhood goes bereft of the reverence and respect which we European-born pay to it. Another girj,. a Christian convert of the missionaries, signs her story : I eaw each girl sent out of the room naked, carrying her clothes in her arms, and her hair hanging down her back. ; 'Then my turn came. I was taken hi i before the Japanese officer with gold braid and a Japanese policeman. They told me to take off my clothes. I refused, They said that I mast,_ as I was a condemned prisoner. At last I took them off, struggling. I had to stand undressed ten minutes before the officer. 1 never looked at his face. ;

BUTCHERED IN A CHURCH. The ' Japan Advertiser ' (Tokio) has just r>riirte<l art acrount oE .Kome vrickeel sliooti\vg of whieh. Japanese soldiers were guilty iu Korea a ten- wroks ago. The paper stars the story under big headlines : "Awful Tales of Korean Repression. Eye-witnesses Tell of Soldiery Burning Homes and' Shooting Panic-stricken Women." Among English language newspapers in Japan the ' Advertiser ' can by no means be regarded as anti-Japanese ; on the contrary, it shows a much readier sympathy with Japan than do some other English prints in this country. I know that the 'Advertiser' sifls carefully all its Korean stories, because J have been within iN amotimi when a lurid tale has ljce:« estimated, and "turned down" for lack of corroboration. What it has jtwfc printed i;=. therefore, all the more significant and all the more reliable. , The narrative relates; events in tbo Korean village of Chaiam on April 15. The little town contains about 40 houses and a Christian church. "On tins date," say the witnesses, " a Japanese lieutenant with a number of soldiers appeared in tho town, and ordered 23 men into the church, under the pretence of giving them a lecture. . . . The lieutenant began hai\ipsrning th ft men?' His harangue contained questions regarding the precept? of Christianity, together with criticisms of the practice of Christian nations. The lieutenant must have been a reader of newspapers, because this kind of homily has been in favor with the Japanese Press recently, especially in association with attacks on President Wilson. But the lieutenant showed his disapprobation of the Christiana by sharper means than words. "Finally the lieutenant stepped out of the building. There were tlnee sharp commands, and the soldiers at the door fired into the church. Men sitting mi the floor crumpled tip and fell over." ADDITIONAL TRAGEDIES happened outside the church. The wife of a man named Kang, who himself hud' been shot, was looking at her burning home. "Suddenly a soldier came running down the hill at her. She turned and opened her lips to protest, when the soldier swum: his sword, and -with twojdows cut off her head."' A man named Hong had also been shot. His wife, "finding the town on fire, ran from her home. As she passed from the village a soldier shot her twice. Her two sons carried her home, and she died that night." Again, "the soldiers entered 1 tho village of Acham. about 20 ' li' west of Cliaiam, and burned tho town. A woman ran from the raiders. . . . The soldiers followed her for more than a mile and shot her."

Many a» Japanese of high place is "deploring" such outrages as these, but there is no "buret of popular indignation. The old Asiatic acquiescence prevails, and it is from America, not from within Japan. that the protest in the name of humanity is coming. Very many American missionaries are in Korea, and through their home Press and their home organisations they are going to be a powerful international influence. Members of the "Kenscikai," the middle political party _of Japan, afterwards approached the Prime Minister (Mr Hara) to ask whether he admitted the truth of what the "Japan Advertiser' had published,, and what action the Government had taken. " RETRIBUTION." Mr - Hara answered that he " could hardly recognise as a fact" the whole 6tory, but ho admitted " more or less traces of the story." lie added that the officers and' men concerned had been punished, the worst offenders being imprisoned. The Prime Minister's reticence and the secrecy attached to the "punishment" are characteristic of bureaucracy. So are the following, question and answer:—"None of the Japanese papers has published an account of these massacres. Is this due to any prohibition from the Government?' T "'The authorities might. have issued a warning to tho newspapers, but no order has been issued such as to prohibit publication," the Premier replied. It is interesting also to remember that Viscount Kato is "leader of the Kensckai, and that he has yet to atone for a bad mistake In his arrogance towards China —and China is Korea's neighbor. Let us hope that this deputation to Mr Hara was purely humane, not political. But Viscount Kato is "tough, sir, tough, and devil'sh sly." The Korean Declaration of Independence was issued at Seoul, signed by 33 representatives of tho various religions. The object of this religious classification, which begins with Presbyterians, then follow Methodists, Roman Catholics, and, last of all, Buddhists, is to show that the movement is not one of any particular church or religion, but of all Korea. Thee signers were arrested before the. printed handbills containing it. were on the streets of Seoul one hour. Following on the declaration, of the National Committee a later issue urged the people that there must be no destruction of property and no violence against the life or safety of anyone, advising at the same timo that any Korean who resorted to violence would disgrace hisi nation and injure her cause. The declaration went on to say : To bind by force 20 millions of resentful Koreans will mean not only loss of peace fur ever of this part of tho Fai-l-last, but will also mean for the centre of danger as well as .safety the 400 millions of China, a suspicion of Japan,

I hare not the slightest idea whether nakedness id or is not a supreme shame to the Korean woman. In their photographs some of the Koreans wear a curious dress, which covers the neck, but leaves the breasts bare, in accordance with a quaint hygienic theory, which says that children are better nourished when the breast of the mother receives sun and air. In Japan I have heard this question of carnal modesty summed up in the epigram: "There is no country in the world •where nakedness is more seen and less noticed." But to return to our Korean schoolgirls, there are a few more sentences to qiK>te: Five skirls had to sleep under one quilt infested with vermin. They called us awful names, and said we were not rirgins. We had to bathe 104 persons in one tub; so dirty was the water I cannot describe it. STORIES OF JAPANESE ATROCITIES. In a thousand ways a visitor ha* pleasant feelings towards Japan. But Japan dealing with Europe is one thins, and Japan, dealing -with Asia is another. "Race equality" is mere talk; one need not. discusa superiority or inferiority in intellectual capacity;" the fact remains that -whatever the" Germans may have done among the Herreros in the stories of Japanese " repression "in Korea would not be possible under an AngloSaxon Government. I have refrained from sending the photographs of mutilated Korean corpses, which are passing from hand to 'hand in Japan—pictures which shnw also a man with his flesh flogged into raw meat. From a pro-Japanese source I learn that it is always the same picture of the same horror. Let it go at that. Neither have I troubled to record the quite unreliable statistics of the number of persona killed in Korea in order to dismiss the threat to Japan's security m government. Human life is less precious fa Asia than in a community like ours. But, of the things which I have read, and of which witnesses have come to me. I believe enough to be certain that Japan naa an Asiatic as well as a European mind, and that the Asiatic mind in Japan has not lost the old medieval brutality. One doe* not believe that this

and an .ever-deepening hatred. From this all the rest of the East will suffer. To-day Korean independence would mean not only life and happiness for uh, but also it would mean Japan's departure from an evil way and exaltation to the place of true protection of the East, so that China, too, even in her dreams, would put all fear of Japan aside. This thought comes from no minor resentment, but from a large hope for the future.

MALIGNANT SPIRIT OF CRUELTY exists among those simple peasants with whom we cracked our biscuits and our jokes in the first motoring tour; nor can ■one think that there w latent savagery m tihe charming men who are the social diplomats of club life in Tokio. But Japan is still steeped in the dye of feudal government, and to that ensanguined color is added the dye from Germany. Upon .Asiatic disregard of life and of _ suffering ihaa been imposed a callous officialdom. What is to follow? For rue, 1 have been so captivated by those far-away rustics that I believe the Japanese- people to bo infinitely Tbetter than their Government and their governing system. Any country, when you come to think of it, rwotdd'be pretty miserable if it had to be lodged by it 3 politicians and its policemen. In the dear old days of Japan, not go very long ago, the Samurai cut off the head of a wandering peasant just because they felt the of some physical exercise. The " Zabern incident" in the pre■war Germany was but a trifle compared "wifeh Japan's aristocratic amusements. •There- is still prevalent in this country the idea that government is founded upon the ;two-handed That is why they •phoofc the benighted Korean for waving a flag; why the school teachers in "the coloniea *'" wear daggers at their hips. The •notion of the ruling powers has not yet *wung away from the old powers which [ttawned arid slew.

Korea has now apnealed to the_ world at large, and to the tjnited States in particular, against the Japanese stranglehold 1 on her liberties, and the "National Association" have drawn up this formidable indictment:

Our richest lands are rapidly passing under private and Japanese Government ownership. The Korean language has been abolished from the public schools, with the substitution of the Japanese. Korean scholars are not permitted higher education. The history cf a proud Korea is excluded from the schools to make way for Japanese culture. All Koreans are forced to salute the Japanese flag and to worship the Japanese Emperor's tablet. Constant and bitter persecution of Christianity in all its activities—both in ita distinctive religious activities and dn its social and educational while official sanction is given to Buddhist and Shinto propagandists. Japanese are in control of all businesses and industries. Constant inhumane treatment of any Korean who exhibits outwardly his endeavor to remain Korean.